Happy Spaces, Smiling Faces!

Mirroring is a great game for a parent to play with their infant.  The one thing babies love is to look at the face of his or her parent.  This is a basis of building trust, security and a relationship between parent and baby. 

Sometimes as a parent you hold your precious little one and wonder, “What next?”  It can be so overwhelming and you want to do it right.  But really, the most important thing to ‘do it right’ with your baby is to develop that strong attachment and security that you are there for them, you love them. 

A fun game to play with your infant is to sit face to face, perhaps with your baby on your knees facing you.  Then you mirror back to them the expressions that they are making.  As your baby grows and develops, so will the complexity and range of expressions you can use.  Eventually  you may even find the game has turned around and he or she is mirroring you! 

Our first weekly theme is Wild Animals.  Wild Animals are intriguing to young children.  My kids still remember our trip to the Metro Toronto Zoo last summer in vivid detail.  In fact, they keep begging me to take them back.  I just love our Wild Animals theme for this reason.  With bright colors and parades of fun animals such as monkeys, giraffes, elephants, bears, camels, and lions, it’s just like bringing the zoo home into your child’s home.  (Of course, without all the costs noise and mess of having real animals around!) 

There is so much flexibility in how to design a Wild Animal domain for your child(ren).  Go all out with bedding and drapes and pillows or just add some fun touches such as a wall border, clock or woven throw.  As you decorate your Wild Animals room, get your child involved by coloring Wild Animal pictures or by making some Wild Animal crafts to display on a shelf or dresser.  A personal favorite site of mine for kid’s crafts is DLTK-Kids.  They have coloring pages you can print off and they have fun toilet paper roll crafts that would be great to display and fairly easy for a child to make. 

Have fun as you create a wild space for your precious “little monkey(s)” to play and/or sleep in.  Don’t forget to put up a Wild Animal Growth Chart, because they don’t stay little for long!